Soul Supreme - Taking the Stand (SSR45-009)

Now that's what we call a remix treatment! Soul Supreme enlists a dream line-up for the official remix of "Taking The Stand." The intro line is all there is to say that this 45 is a no-brainer to cop: "Thes One is on the beat, Soul Supreme composed the suite, the Fudgemunk is about to speak."

As a long-time fan of People Under The Stairs and Damu The Fudgemunk, this is a full-circle moment for Soul Supreme. He deejayed alongside Damu in the past, and he has shown his appreciation to both P.U.T.S. and Damu with various tribute mixes. Matter of fact, this release is a full-circle moment for any hip-hop head: this 45 marks the very first time Thes One and Damu can be heard on one record together.

In typical crate-digging fashion, Thes One flips key elements from Soul Supreme's "Taking The Stand" into a neck-snapping beat. The instrumental album version of "Taking The Stand" can be found on the B-side of this 45. The original is a beautifully melodic jazz-funk head-nodder featuring drums by Tamuz Dolev and a spirited guitar solo by Radiohop's Johnny Biner.

"Taking The Stand" originally appeared on Soul Supreme's highly acclaimed instrumental album Poetic Justice. Released last year, the album channeled his ongoing legal battle with a Norwegian label that stole his music. Fresh off his latest collaborations with Raw Poetic, Damu The Fudgemunk hopped back on the mic for this remix to voice his displeasure about shifty record labels. Damu also laid down cuts for the outro of the track, serving as a tribute to the late Double K.

"While you had Madlib, DOOM, and Quas doing all kinds of esoteric stuff in this beautiful wave of underground hip-hop in the late '90s and early 2000s, these were legends but not people you actually knew. People Under the Stairs were like your friends, kind of, even though you don't know them", Soul Supreme told Wax Poetics in 2022. "They are more like everyday people who make amazing music. (...) Thes One & Double K were really honest about who they are. That's something, for me, that I consider one of the most important things in music." The 45 release of "Taking The Stand (Thes One Remix)" shows just that: three like-minded music heads at their most honest and passionate.